Astronomical Ephemeris

Many are astronomical events that can be observed throughout the year. These phenomena are usually visible to the naked eye for observation and ideally do so from places with no light pollution generated from large cities.

Lunar Eclipses

A lunar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, meaning when the moon enters the shadow of the Earth. This can only occur during the full moon. The moon has a radius of 1736.6 km and orbits the Earth at an average distance of 384,403 km (60.27 Equatorial radius). The height of the cone of shadow is 1,384,584 km (217 equatorial radius), that is greater than the distance from the Earth to the Moon, which is why eclipses occur.

Meteor Shower

When a comet passes through the inner Solar System, the interaction with the solar wind activates its surface. The gases and materials from the comet's surface are expulsed into space and orbit the Sun, in orbits very similar to those of the comet it came from. This forms a ring or stream of particles, technically called the meteor shower.

The terrestrial orbit crosses some swarms of short-period comets, producing meteorite showers every year, such as Leonidas and the Perseidas. When the activity of a shower of meteorites exceeds 1000 meteorites per hour, it is called a meteorite storm.

It is believed that some comets may be exhausted asteroids, comets that have lost all their volatile elements. That is why some showers may originate from ateroides, which is the case of las Gemínidas, which is found in the orbit of the asteroid.